McAdoo, Reese ousted following controversial Manning benching

The New York Giants have gone through a difficult week of major team changes that has ended in them cleaning house by firing their coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese.

Before people can understand the implications and methodology behind these changes, one has to see the timeline of events.

The Giants started the week by announcing that they would bench Eli Manning in favor of testing other options in the form of Geno Smith and Davis Webb.

This decision was met, justifiably, with widespread criticism as the team had already started him for the entire season and this was an ugly way to end the career of someone who has blessed the franchise with two championships along with being the face of the organization for 13 seasons.

Manning’s fellow players started to become uneasy with the decision to bench their leader, many seeming to indicate that they were not on board with the decision.

Later in the week, as things began to settle down, players and fans alike began to see it as a way to prepare for the future and find the next QB to replace Manning.

However, hours before the Giants game against the Oakland Raiders on Dec. 3, rumors started to leak out that owner John Mara would fire McAdoo and Reese if they left Oakland with anything but a win.

The team categorically denied these reports before and after the game, but these rumors appeared to have been true as both were fired the next day after a 24-17 loss to the Raiders.

This ridiculous week of events reveals the team to lack any real leadership in the front office and it starts with the owner, Mara.

The idea of benching Manning is too brash for McAdoo to have done on his own, and he would have needed support from the team’s owner to do it.

While one cannot blame the owner entirely, he is culpable in the poor decision-making. Reese’s firing is well-earned after years of being unable to fix the Giants’ offensive line woes.

Reese has managed to keep his job by making a few great draft picks and winning two Super Bowls , which will most likely carry him to a new job in some other team’s front office.

Reese is not a bad general manager, but his time with the Giants needed to end. The team is in a tight spot right now, absent of any real plan and any leadership, but it still has plenty of talent on both sides.

Hopefully, the Giants can make some great personnel decisions and take advantage of the overwhelming talent on their team. The team was projected to win the Super Bowl, but has only won two games thus far. Manning was not the issue, and thus did not deserve to be benched. The Giants will start Manning down the stretch under interim coach Steve Spagnuolo.